As developers for tablets and smartphones we like to keep abreast of the latest mobile technology developments . This is a daily digest of mobile development and related technology news gathered from the BBC, the New York Times, New Scientist and the Globe and Mail to name a few. We scour the web for articles concerning, iPhone, iPad and android development, iOS and android operating systems as well as general articles on advances in mobile technology. We hope you find this useful and that it helps to keep you up to date with the latest technology developments.
OneDrive for Windows Phone Update Brings Transparent Live Tile
The OneDrive team has had a busy day today. Earlier this morning they released an update to OneDrive for Android with several new features and fixes and tonight we see a new OneDrive for Windows Phone version now available. The update, version 4.11.0.0 for those keeping score at home, brings mostly bug fixes and improvements but also brings a Transparent Live Tile to the app. I personally think that transparent Live tiles are one of the things that seperates Windows Phone from a user experience perspective than iOS or Android as it allow you to make your device more personal.
The post OneDrive for Windows Phone Update Brings Transparent Live Tile appeared first on Clinton Fitch.
Twitter Basics: 5 Simple Steps to Get You Started
Co-authored by Monica McLemore, PhD, MPH, RN, assistant professor at the University of California San Francisco, and Candace W. Burton, PhD, RN, AFN-BC, AGN-BC, FNAP assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.
First things first: what’s Twitter? Twitter is a microblogging, content-sharing social media website, which is one of the most visited websites daily. On Twitter, you have only 140 characters to get your point across in what are called “tweets.”
There are almost 6.5 million registered Twitter users who send nearly 58 million tweets per day. Twitter has been around for almost 10 years. It’s not too late to engage and participate! Do you want to use Twitter but you don’t know where to start? We hope this helps.
Here are 5 simple steps to get you started:
1. Choose a “handle”
Your Twitter handle is how you will be known so choose it wisely. Do you want it to be some version of your name, like ours (@MonaShattell, @mclemoremr, @DrCBurton); or do you want your handle to be “issue based”, about something or some topic that you would like to tweet about (e.g. @NoStigmas, @FeministLady, @MenStopViolence), or are you part of an organization that would like to start a social media presence using Twitter (e.g. @WomenInHigherEd, @TurningPointBHC)? It may also be a nickname or something that has meaning for you personally, such as @barbs73 or @DataSnake.
2. Sign up for a Twitter account
Follow these simple steps to sign up for a Twitter account. All you need is your name, cell phone number and a password. The information you enter on the Twitter website will generate a text message with a confirmation code, which you will then enter in the website. If you do not use or like text messaging, you can use an email address for confirmation instead.
3. Write your profile
Your profile should describe who you are, if your handle is your name. If your handle is issue-based, it should describe in more detail what the issues are, and if your handle is for an organization, your profile should describe what your organization does. This is Twitter so it has to be concise — you only have 160 characters, but you can direct the reader to another website, to give them more information. There are many free web services to shorten websites, which is important to do when every character counts. We tend to use bitly but there are lots of other options.
4. Choose and add a profile image
It’s really important to add a profile image next. Do you have a recent headshot or an image that you are particularly fond of? Or, if you’re setting up a Twitter account for an organization, your organization’s logo works well as a profile image. The worst thing is to leave this empty — the default Twitter image is an egg-shaped icon, and many users ignore any tweet from an egg on the theory that if the account is a real person, they’ll have a picture.
5. Search, follow, and watch
Now the fun part. Open your Twitter account profile page and type the names in the search bar of people you know or are interested in following. Try key words for issues of interest. Consider following news (e.g. @nytimes, @HuffingtonPost), television (e.g. @CNN), and radio channels; organizations to which you belong or are interested (e.g., @AAN_Nursing, @ANANursingWorld, @NINR). When you find profiles that you are interested in following, simply click the “follow” tab. It’s that easy. Once you have followed some profiles, you can click on your home tab to view your “feed” or timeline (TL). Your feed is all the latest tweets by persons who you follow. As we’ve said in, “Why Nurses Need Twitter,” don’t let the volume of tweets overwhelm you. You are not expected to keep up. Simply check your feed when you want and scroll through to see what’s happening. You’re on your way! Now go back and read our pieces on “Why Nurses Need Twitter” and “What are the Five Best Practices for Tweeting from Conferences?” to help you benefit from your Twitter account. Happy Tweeting!
– This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Why There Has Never Been a Better Time to Be an Entrepreneur
Doctor, engineer, and businessman. These were the top three career choices for the children of middle-class families in India when I was young. Doctors earned the most respect; engineers were second-best; business was something you got into if you didn’t have the chops to complete a degree.
I chose the engineering route, or the closest thing to it that I liked: computer science. My family had moved to the United States, and I started my career working for big companies such as Xerox and Credit Suisse First Boston. I was pretty good at what I did, and my career advanced to a point at which I could become an entrepreneur. A revolutionary technology that I had built with the help of my team at First Boston was so successful that IBM funded the creation of a start-up company to market it. I took the role of executive vice president and chief technology officer.
Yes, I know that by the old Indian standards, in moving from a big company to a tiny little one, my career had seemingly moved backwards. But by the ’90s, when I co-founded Seer Technologies, things had changed everywhere, even in India. Entrepreneurship had become a respectable career option.
A lot more has changed since then.
The advice I give to today’s graduates is to decline the job offers from big companies and instead join promising start-ups. Better still, if they have the ideas and ability, I encourage graduates to start their own companies and be masters of their own destiny.
I warn the graduates that they will be earning a lot less than if they worked for big companies, will be taking huge risks and will likely fail, and need to be ready for extremely hard work and endless runs of sleepless nights. But they will learn much more than if they completed an MBA and, most importantly, will have a far greater sense of accomplishment, position themselves for long-term success, and gain a much more realistic view of the world. If they start the right company, they may well make the world a better place. And you never know: The start-up could get really lucky and be worth a fortune.
It is also possible to be part of a start-up later in life, as was the case for me. But it gets harder, because you have family obligations and feel hesitant to take the crazy risks. The graduates of today can try their hands at entrepreneurship and join a big company a year or two later if things don’t work out. The really smart employers — the companies that are worthy of working for — will value a failed entrepreneur more than someone who took the easy corporate route.
I didn’t have such options when I graduated in the mid ’70s. You needed big money to start a technology company, and there was no easy path back to the corporate world if you failed.
Seer Technologies needed $20 million in venture capital to get off the ground. It was building software tools. In those days, to start any company, you needed to have equipment that cost millions of dollars, including desktop computers, server farms, racks of hard disks, and enterprise software. And you needed to hire many people to maintain these. Today you have on-demand computing and cloud storage — and they’re practically free in the start-up stage. A laptop, which is many times more powerful than the Cray supercomputers of yesteryear, costs only a few hundred dollars. All you need with this is a fast Internet connection and maybe some sensors and robotics equipment, and you’re off to the races. Of course, you also need a place to stay in and some food. But family or friends can usually provide a couch and some leftovers.
The big advantage that entrepreneurs today have is that the world has become connected. They can crowdsource funding, crowd-create products, and market globally. They can collaborate with people anywhere in the world.
Entrepreneurs can bootstrap hardware companies such as Nest, which Google acquired for $3.2 billion, or Oculus, which Facebook bought for a cool $2 billion. The sensors needed in order to build these technologies, which would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in the days of my youth, cost practically nothing today. Entrepreneurs on shoestring budgets can build smartphone apps that act as medical assistants to detect disease; body sensors that monitor heart, brain, and body activity; and technologies to measure soil humidity and improve agriculture. They can also design new types of organisms that cure disease, digital tutors that teach almost any subject, and artificial-intelligence-based apps that analyze information and improve business processes. In other words, they can do the stuff that only the big companies could do before.
Entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk are revolutionizing the automotive industry, making private space travel possible, and building revolutionary energy-storage technologies. They are doing the work that previously only governments could have done.
So if I was traveling back in time and speaking to my younger self, I would not have had much to offer in the way of career advice. But I do know what to say to the youth of today: Use your intellect and energy to make the world a better place; you surely can.
– This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Rail upgrade 'raises hack risks'
A government adviser warns that a new hi-tech rail signalling system could be hacked by terrorists to cause train crashes.
It's time: Apple delivers the Watch
The Apple Watch ships, but does it deliver?
VIDEO: 'The greatest feeling of freedom'
Yves Rossy explains what it is like to fly with a jet pack.
VIDEO: The robot that makes coffee
BBC Click’s LJ Rich looks at some of the best of the week’s technology news
Bitcoin Island: the currency comes clean
The small island that’s going big on bitcoin
Amazon reports a quarterly loss
Amazon reports a loss of $57m in the first quarter and also said its web services business generated sales of $1.57bn.
Rohit Varma on India's Surge in the Digital Era
In a country where Cricket and Bollywood are the consistent favorites, a wave of social media titans are pushing their way to the top, one impactful project at a time. One of the hottest and most talked about figures in the digital community is Rohit Varma, founder of the Bangalore-based R. Square Consulting.
For sometime now, Varma and his staff have put together Social Media Week activities in multiple cities including Mumbai and Bangalore – capturing and showcasing India’s proud history, and giving voice to its economically exciting future. It takes skill skill, relationship building, and a deep knowledge of global trends to weave together an extraordinary portrait of the lives of India’s 1.3 billion people.
But Varma has the full package, and is consistently rising to the challenge. A former corporate insider, he has transitioned himself into a master promoter and organizer of the ‘live social media event’. If Social Media Week Bangalore’s electrifying performance this past February is any indication, then we can look forward to more from this savvy, digital marketer, who is helping to define India’s influential presence on the world stage.
You have been one of the most celebrated social entrepreneurs in India. What do attribute to your success?
I would say my passion and commitment. I came into this concrete jungle from a small town called Balaghat with big dreams, and I have been fortunate to learn a lot from the corporate environment I worked in. When I decided to make a mark for myself, there was no looking back. My family, friends and colleagues have been of immense support in my journey. My belief that “Anything is possible, if one puts in 100%” has never let me down.
You were one of the organizers of Social Media Week Bangalore back in February. A very successful effort that resonated throughout every corner of social media. What made things happen like that on such a global scale?
Yes, Social Media Week (SMW) Bangalore was a huge success. We believe community needs a platform to connect, share and create. We have attempted to create a platform for the social community. Social Media is really dynamic, and SMW becomes a perfect forum for sharing knowledge, learning and exploring business opportunities. Content is key. We go back to community, and take their advice to build relevant content. We work on multiple formats and we develop content for different audiences like marketing professionals, social communities, students, entrepreneurs, and so on.
Right now, you are hard at work with Social Media Week Mumbai, which will take place in September. Your team generated great excitement in Bangalore, so what can the attendees expect from this upcoming event?
Yes, the team did amazing work in Bangalore and I am sure SMW Mumbai will be bigger than SMW Bangalore from the perspective social engagement, content, involvement of many more organisations and relevancy. The theme for SMW Mumbai is really interesting: ” Upwardly Mobile – the rise of connected world”. Under this theme we will attempt to understand how new ideas, innovation and technology will change our lives. We have received some very interesting feedback from the community on this theme. I am very excited the way this edition is shaping up. I can say audience will love the content.
Companies are either setting up offices in India or coming to recruit talent for companies headquartered elsewhere. In light of this fact, how do you see India evolving and continuing to push the boundaries of digital innovation?
Today, the world does not have any boundaries. I think we have broken the cultural and language barriers. India has a very strong culture – the culture of “adapting”. Hence companies are either recruiting from India or opening their offices around the country. I think the talent and business opportunity here is immense. I see India becoming a hub for digital innovation quite soon.
As a kid, I grew up hearing amazing stories about the Taj Mahal and how beautifully designed it is. 100 years from now, when people talk about India and its place in the world, its culture and impact, what will be the stories that you think people will talk about?
India will be known as a country of dreams. A world capital of innovation. Innovation which impacts the way we live, work and create.
2morrowknight is an international keynote speaker and digital strategist. Connect with him at Instagram.com/2morrowknight.
– This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
11 Aunts Wanted For Crimes Against Facebook
Aunts: they keep their friends close, and their nieces and nephews closer.
Do you or someone you know have an aunt friend on Facebook? Of course you do, Facebook is like 75 percent moms and aunts now. There’s no escaping the fact that our mother and father’s sisters are the new queens of the news feed, and if you’ve spent more than 10 minutes on the social network recently, you’ve probably been affected by one of these rogue relatives.
It’s not too late to do something about the awkward comments, constant game invites and shared links to news stories about a secret the government is hiding. Keep an eye out for these aunt-based crimes against Facebook and speak up so we can all stalk our exes and check up on old high school friends in peace.
– This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Elon Musk Accepted $0 Of His Tesla Salary Last Year
Tesla Motors’ Elon Musk basically worked for free last year.
The electric carmaker paid its chief executive $35,360 in 2014 — just over half of what he earned in 2013 — but Musk didn’t accept any of it, according to a Wednesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. If fact, he has never accepted his full salary, the document noted. Last year, he took home just $1.
His compensation — which, by law, must be awarded, even if he doesn’t take it — has shrunk since 2012, when the company was in such dire financial straits that Musk reportedly almost sold Tesla to Google.
A Tesla spokeswoman did not immediately respond to The Huffington Post’s request for comment, and it’s unclear exactly how large the billionaire entrepreneur’s stake in the company currently is. Tesla’s share price closed at nearly $219 on Thursday, giving it a market cap of $27.6 billion.
The company’s share price has fluctuated in recent months. Investors, spooked by the company’s recent spending spree and estimates that it may take another five years to turn a profit, sobered up on a stock they once bought ravenously. Musk even admitted that the buying frenzy late last summer caused the stock to soar to unrealistic prices.
Still, Tesla is neither Musk’s sole source of income nor his sole venture. He serves as chief executive of the private space firm SpaceX and as chairman of the green energy company SolarCity, in which he owns a 21 percent stake, according to CNN Money.
Other Tesla executives, meanwhile, have seen steep increases in their pay, according to Wednesday’s SEC filing. Deepak Ahuja, chief financial officer, earned $3.8 million, up from $338,000 in 2013. Jeffrey B. Straubel, chief technology officer, saw his salary balloon to $17.1 million from $467,603 a year earlier.
H/T CNN via Fortune
– This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Top Lobbying Groups Spent $64 Million To Influence Congress, White House
WASHINGTON — The top 10 lobbying spenders shelled out a combined $64 million in the first three months of this year to influence federal policy, according to first-quarter lobbying reports filed with the Senate this week. The number represents an upswing on K Street, where lobbyists and clients are taking advantage of fresh opportunities afforded by the new Congress.
First among the spenders was the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which together with its subsidiary, the Institute for Legal Reform, spent $19.5 million to lobby Congress and the White House on topics ranging from free trade agreements to environmental regulation to copyright laws. It appears they were successful, at least in part. On Wednesday, the Senate approved a request by the Obama administration for “fast track” authority in trade deals, paving the way for the Chamber-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to move forward.
Ranking second behind the Chamber was the National Association of Realtors. The group spent $7.7 million lobbying on issues like flood insurance premiums, which have risen sharply in the past few years. NAR also lobbied for the Mortgage Choice Act, a bill that would weaken regulations on mortgage lenders enacted following the 2007 collapse of the housing market. The Mortgage Choice Act passed in the House of Representatives on April 14.
Only slightly behind the Realtors was the American Medical Association, which reported spending $6.7 million lobbying during the first quarter of 2015. Like the top two donors, the doctors’ lobby scored a major victory this spring, when both the House and Senate voted to permanently fix a widely acknowledged flaw in the Medicare payment system. The end of the “Doc Fix,” as it is known, gives the AMA’s members something to celebrate and suggests the group’s lobbying money was put to good use.
While the top lobbying spenders in Washington are typically national trade associations with thousands of dues-paying members, this year a new corporation climbed to the top of the solo rankings: Google spent $5.5 million on lobbyists in the past three months.
Google is currently engaged in high-stakes antitrust litigation in Europe, so it makes sense that the Internet’s top search site would invest in strengthening its relationships on Capitol Hill and in the White House, lest any U.S. regulators express the same concerns about Google’s competitive practices as their European counterparts. According to its lobbying disclosure forms, Google also lobbied Congress on legislation to thwart so-called “patent trolls,” to help Google hire more skilled workers from overseas and to support the company’s efforts to develop new drones and self-driving cars.
Google’s major spending is unusual in part because the corporations that typically top the list are those in highly regulated industries, like public utilities. One such company, American Electric Power Co., spent $4.7 million on lobbying this quarter. That’s only slightly less than General Electric Co., one of the nation’s largest energy equipment manufacturers, which spent $4.8 million.
Utility companies are engaged in a fierce battle to protect their market share from the booming rooftop solar industry, so it’s safe to bet that lobbying expenditures in this sector won’t be dropping anytime soon.
Rounding out the list of the top 10 spenders are three perennial K Street powerhouses, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the National Association of Broadcasters and the American Hospital Association.
Overall, nine of the top 15 lobbying groups spent more in the first quarter of 2015 than they did in the last three months of 2014, according to Politico. It’s a shift that’s likely attributable to the new Republican majority in the Senate. With both chambers controlled by the GOP, bills that might never have passed a Democratic-led Senate may now get a second chance.
Anytime there’s a change in the political landscape, it generally means more work for lobbyists. But a GOP majority bodes especially well for corporate interests, such as those represented by the Chamber of Commerce.
It remains to be seen whether the rest of the year will be as productive as the first quarter in terms of legislation passed. But if the past three months are any indication, this could be a very busy year on K Street.
– This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Lendit 2015 Recap: Online Lending Innovation Beyond Just Student Loans
Last week, I had the pleasure of attending LendIt, the largest annual conference about online lending, and participating as the moderator of a panel about the student loan market. During the conference, I saw a lot of great presentations about the industry. The following are just a few of my favorite slides and stories.
Why the online lending market has emerged
Former Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence Summers included this slide that shows the growing spread between short term unsecured loans and treasury yields. This has likely made it possible for online lenders including Lending Club, Prosper and other similar lenders to enter the market with very competitive rates and increase their customer base.
How online lenders compete in the market
Former Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration Karen Gordon Mills showed the relative strengths and weaknesses of banks vs. online lenders. As the chart exemplifies, banks have significant advantages with respect to low cost of capital and large pools of existing customers, but online lenders have been able to grow as the result of innovations in customer experience, underwriting models and less regulation.
How far the market has progressed
Ron Suber, President of Prosper, demonstrated how quickly the growth rate of online lending has been in the last two years, outpacing both the S&P and smartphones. As conference founder Peter Renton pointed out, this growth has resulted in U.S. online consumer and small business lenders doing an estimated combined $14 Billion in loan volume in 2014 with projected growth to $32 Billion in 2015.
What’s to come in the near future
Lending Club CEO Renaud Laplanche showed that despite its growth over the last several years, marketplace lending is still just a drop in the overall U.S. Consumer and Small Business Lending Market bucket.
The excitement about the evolution of online lending as well as the profound growth and innovation in the space at LendIt was palpable. This trend is broadening consumers’ options and better addressing their needs, which will fuel continued growth in the space.
To learn more about the student lending industry and how to save thousands by refinancing your student loans, visit Credible.
– This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Microsoft quarterly profit falls
Microsoft reports a 12% fall in profits to almost $5bn in the first three months of 2015, but sales rise to $21.7bn, cheering investors.
Somebody Is Trying To Sell Mayweather-Pacquiao Tickets For $142,000 On StubHub
Want to see Manny Pacquiao fight Floyd Mayweather in person?
If initial listing prices on StubHub are to be taken seriously, get ready to crack your piggy bank, your 401K and maybe even your safety deposit box full of jewels.
Some tickets were selling for as much as $141,575.25 when StubHub posted available tickets Thursday afternoon. And that listing was joined by two others asking for six figures to attend the May 2 welterweight championship bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
(Source: StubHub)
“This is among the lowest ticket allotments for a championship card fight, and StubHub is happy to provide fans access with … tickets to this historic event,” StubHub spokesman Cameron Papp told The Huffington Post. “There’s no question that this will be the most popular fight we’ve ever had on StubHub.”
– This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Google profits please investors
US technology giant Google reports a 4% increase in profits in the first quarter to $3.59bn helped by strong advertising sales.
NASA Celebrates The Hubble Telescope's 25th Birthday With Gorgeous Photos Of Space Fireworks
Happy birthday, Hubble!
The celebrated space telescope turns 25 on Friday. To mark the anniversary, NASA set the instrument loose to gaze at some fireworks — that is, space fireworks. Hubble captured the spectacular photos of stars being born in “Westerlund 2,” a cluster of 3,000 stars that is in Gum 29, which NASA describes as a “raucous stellar breeding ground” in the constellation Carina.
Westerlund 2, set in the stellar breeding ground of Gum 29.
“Hubble has completely transformed our view of the universe, revealing the true beauty and richness of the cosmos,” John Grunsfeld, an astronaut and the associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in a written statement announcing the anniversary. “This vista of starry fireworks and glowing gas is a fitting image for our celebration of 25 years of amazing Hubble science.”
The Westerlund cluster measures between six and 13 light-years across, NASA says. It’s about 2 million years old, which in astronomical terms is fairly young. The thin pillars that fork out from the nebula are each several light-years tall. They owe their unique shape to the “torrents of ultraviolet light and hurricane-force winds of charged particles” that bombard them from the nearby stars.
Since its launch on April 24, 1990, Hubble has orbited the Earth almost 137,000 times and made more than 1.2 million observations of over 38,000 celestial objects, according to the Space Telescope Science Institute. The institute notes that Hubble’s data archive, which grows by an average of 829 gigabytes each month, has so far been cited in more than 12,800 scientific papers.
– This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Why We Need Terrible Female Engineers
Think of a woman in the tech industry you admire. Describe her. If you’re thinking of someone particularly memorable, you might say, “She’s amazing! She’s an awesome software engineer, always has interesting things to say, and is really pretty.” I’ll be the first to admit that I’m fascinated with these women because they reject all the stereotypes to which I’ve grown accustomed. They’re perfect.
It’s wonderful and crucial that these bright female role models exist. These women are living proof that women in technology are not just the caricatures that we are so often portrayed as in mainstream media – proof that we can be excellent programmers and normal people (for some definition of normal). We’re so far from achieving this abstract concept of equality in the tech industry, but I appreciate the fact that I can think of several women whom I admire and aspire to be like one day. I’m not against the existence of awesome women in tech. They are not the issue.
The problem starts when we reject women who don’t fit this mold of excelling in every way. You don’t have to look far to find examples of people advocating for women in tech (and other fields) by claiming that the tech industry isn’t just for socially awkward, unhygienic men – it’s also for women who buck the trends by being charismatic, stylish, talented engineers.
As an example, if you watch the she++ documentary, you’ll find handfuls of inspirational, multifaceted women who reject the notion of being a stereotypical computer science major in favor of sororities, extroversion, manicures, and Gossip Girl. she++ keeps using the slogan “#goodgirlsgonegeek” to promote their cause, but I can’t get behind the idea that we are looking for good, sweet girls to turn into programmers. You shouldn’t have to be pretty or nice or really anything besides interested in tech to go into this industry. As much as I appreciate and support the work these groups are doing – and to be clear, she++ is not the only group I’m thinking of – I’m left with this nagging feeling that the only women we value are the ones who can be everything at once. That we’re only worthy if we can destroy the curve in the algorithms class and write beautiful lines of code while painting our nails. Otherwise, if we’re just okay programmers, or if we’re socially awkward, we don’t matter.
I resent that we keep perpetuating this idea that women in tech are good at everything because we shouldn’t have to be any better than anyone else to belong in this field. We belong in this field because we’re people who deserve a shot, not because we are geniuses. Nicki Minaj puts it best:
When you’re a girl, you have to be everything. You have to be dope at what you do, but you have to be super sweet, and you have to be sexy, and you have to be this and you have to be that and you have to be nice, and you have to — it’s like, I can’t be all of those things at once. I’m a human being.
We put so much pressure on women to be brilliant, attractive, personable, successful, and everything in between. You can be a respected politician and still have journalists ask you where you like to shop, be the highest paid actress in Hollywood and still be known as a bitch just for not smiling all the time, or really be in any field and still considered a social failure if you don’t plan to have kids.
I don’t want to combat misogyny by showing people who hate women that there is absolutely nothing to hate. That’s not how you garner acceptance for women – that’s how you put some women on a pedestal and put down anyone who isn’t perfect, who doesn’t want to be perfect. This trend of glorifying brilliant women is great for the short-term, but it’s not going to create lasting acceptance for all women. We don’t deserve to be in this industry because we’re all so incredibly exceptional and talented. We deserve equal treatment for no other reason than the fact that we are people.
It needs to be okay for women to fail. We need flawed women whose mistakes represent just that – their own mistakes. Not reflections upon our entire gender, not held up as reasons for why women aren’t meant to be in tech. We need to accept women in this field who aren’t incredibly talented, who aren’t going to send shockwaves through the industry, who want to be here just because it’s a great place to be.
If I had started this piece with “Think of a man in the tech industry,” I wouldn’t have been able to predict the responses. When I think of men in tech, I don’t think of one particular skill level or one particular personality. I think of the guy who’s been coding since he was 12, the guy who’s pretty good at front-end development but not so great with functional programming, or the guy who actually kind of sucks at coding. I think of brogrammers, nerds, guys who love ultimate frisbee, and guys who love StarCraft. And they’re all welcome in this field to find their own varying levels of success. If the tech industry were only for geniuses, I would have a different message. I would say sure, only let the brilliant women in (or hey, let the rest of us in, too). But that’s not how it is. There’s room in this industry for everyone. There are plenty of men who are terrible at what they do, and they’re still here.
More than women who are at the top of their fields, I need women who suck at programming. I need women who are okay at their jobs. I need women who sometimes have to ask questions and admit weakness. I need women who are antisocial, who love video games, who fall right into the stereotypical depictions of a woman in tech. Because no matter who you are, if you want to be in this field, you should be allowed in. And the way we keep promoting only the exceptional isn’t going to create more acceptance for women in tech as a whole. It’s going to reject all the women who don’t meet those impossible standards.
Note: I am absolutely not saying “hire terrible female engineers.”
Not at all. Hire the best person for the job. If a woman sucks at software engineering, it is not sexist to acknowledge that. In a perfect world, this would be perfectly fine advice. But we all have our own biases, whether conscious or subconscious, and people do tend to get this idea that women are either incredibly talented programmers or completely useless. People sometimes need to be reminded that one woman’s failures do not reflect the entire gender as a whole. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suggest that people examine their biases and consider whether they’re truly judging men and women’s performances equally.
Being expected to be either a “perfect super-human” or a “girl who can’t code” puts a huge amount of pressure on women. I’m suggesting that showing women it is okay to not fall into those categories would help the tech industry feel more inclusive as a whole. Women, like men, fall on a spectrum and having a diversity of talent would relieve the pressure for all of us who feel as though we have to be on one of the extreme ends.
This post originally appeared on Medium.
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